The President So Out of the Loop

The more times I see the videotape of this White House press conference, or read the transcript of it, the more I laugh and yes, the angrier I get. The president wasn't informed until an hour or so AFTER we all got this on CNN that for a few seconds, it was believed a plane might be "attacking" DC.

Shamefully (Catholic history dies hard) lifted from Oliver Willis since the page will not open without errors at the .GOV site, with emphasis mine:

Q Scott, yesterday the White House was on red alert, was evacuated. The First Lady and Nancy Reagan were taken to a secure location. The Vice President was evacuated from the grounds. The Capitol building was evacuated. The continuity of government plan was initiated. And yet, the President wasn't told of yesterday's events until after he finished his bike ride, about 36 minutes after the all-clear had been sent. Is he satisfied with the fact that he wasn't notified about this?

MR. McCLELLAN: Yes. I think you just brought up a very good point -- the protocols that were in place after September 11th were followed. The President was never considered to be in danger because he was at an off-site location. The President has a tremendous amount of trust in his Secret Service detail.

The Secret Service detail that was traveling with the President was being kept apprised of the situation as it was developing. They were in close contact with officials back here at the White House. And the President appreciates the job that they do.

Q The fact that the President wasn't in danger is one aspect of this. But he's also the Commander-in-Chief. There was a military operation underway. Other people were in contact with the White House. Shouldn't the Commander-in-Chief have been notified of what was going on?

MR. McCLELLAN: John, the protocols that we put in place after September 11th were being followed. They did not require presidential authority for this situation. I think you have to look at each situation and the circumstances surrounding the situation. And that's what officials here at the White House were doing. That's what officials were doing that were with the President at the off-site location, and this was a matter of minutes when all this was happening, when the alert level was going from yellow to orange to red, and then it went back down to yellow when the plane turned away.

First, he keeps reading "My Pet Goat" for many precious moments into 9/11. And now this. It's like in this second term, we're not even bothering to pretend he actually does anything more than bamboozle.

Is anyone else bothered by this?